Porkies have girdled plenty of my beech trees at camp (NC PA) down low like that. Some are that big too.

I have seen 3 dead porcupines in the the road the last couple years. I don't think we have many, but we definitely have them. I also live in West Michigan. The only damage I have seen was on white pine trunks in the 8-10 year range. I would lean towards what Trapper D suggested.

That actually just looks like a rotten tree. Porcupine trees usually have marks that almost look like scratches and usually they leave little spots of bark, generally porcupine trees look almost spotted. But is suppose that could have been a old porcupine tree. My guess would just be a rotted tree. If it was a porcupine, that tree is a goner.

There is a disease killing beech trees throughout PA It is called beech bark disease Small bugs chew their way into the wood As they work their way through it kills the bark layer and exposes the wood to cause the tree to die I have an ortomental beech tree I planted in1991 It grew fast and was well shaped with not signs of a problem It s dying now and nothing to fix the problem Look up BEECH BARK DISEASE It has the potential to cause major problems to a tree that is a high volume food source to wildlife

i agree the tree is dead,but it sure looks like the bark has been chewed off. that tree in background looks like may have been chewed on also.

Beech Scale disease.

google it !!!

w

I have googled it. Just no good pictures. It's not porcupine damage. I've seen their damage when in northern Michigan deer hunting. I've shot many of those buggers in my youth. I'll have those trees down in a few days.